Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - May 2008
Controversy has erupted over a government campaign aimed toward ethnic minority groups in Canada. The advertisements are being placed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and are intended to garner support for the Conservatives’ controversial proposed policy changes.
The changes would allow the department to set application quotas for each year. Once that year’s quota had been met, additional applications would be sent back and would need to be filed again the following year. Currently each application sent is accepted and processed in order of receipt.
The government also wants to make permanent residency more accessible for certain professionals whose skills are in high demand. These individuals would be able to have their applications “fast-tracked” to the front of the processing line.
Since the announcement last month of these proposals there has been heavy debate within parliament. Critics say that the new rules would be unfair and would discourage many potential immigrants from applying.
In response to these criticisms the government is now turning to the people of Canada to try to drum up support. They have begun running advertisements for the changes in ethnic journals and on radio stations across the nation.
This move in itself is stirring up its own controversy because the campaign is for new policies that have yet to be voted on.
In 1989, the Mulroney government attempted to do something similar by running ads to promote their proposed GST, but it was deemed by the House Speaker to be “objectionable and should never be repeated” because the new legislation had not yet been passed. The ads were pulled.
Opposition members are hoping that the current Speaker, Peter Milliken, will rule similarly.
However, even without the advertising, the new policies are likely to be passed because they were “slipped” into the bill proposal for the federal budget. To vote against the bill would trigger an election, which many analysts say is the last thing the opposition Liberals would want at this time.
Source: The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
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